SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

If we believe that what we are doing (or taking) is having a positive impact on performance or recovery (and then performance), then to stop would mean harming performance and who wants to do worse or make things more difficult? There is pressure to perform well: From sponsors, team management, team mates, and the public/fans. Can you perform up to those expectations, live with the consequences of not meeting those expectations, or will you give in to the temptation of taking something illegal to give you more confidence in your performance? The fear of failure is a strong one. There are personal and professional needs to be satisfied. Athletes are competitive. Some have a strong need to be successful, gain glory, be seen on TV, be accepted, praised, beat a key rival, show that our training has been worth it, that we are as good as or better than before... It’s tempting then to take something that would help us deliver and satisfy these needs. We believe that others are doing it...

Italian football match-fixing inquiry story on the BBC today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18000848 ): 52 active players to answer questions on their behaviour. This got me wondering, some athletes make the decision to take performance enhancing drugs to perform better (by cheating), but how much money would it take for athletes (footballers and others) to perform worse? What would it take for us in their shoes to: to miss a or every shot on goal? to foul another player? to false start in a sprint race? to fail at each attempt at a triple jump? to not finish a hurdle race? to finish outside the top 10 in a sprint in a cycling road race? ... Would we never be tempted? Even by a few hundred thousand pounds? Would our price be high, average, or not so high? Would it be lower if we are more towards the end of our sporting careers, to earn a bit extra, or because it 'doesn't matter'? How would we justify the decision? Dr Victor Thompson www.sportsps...

This isn't anything academic, but simply some straight-forward thoughts I've typed-up after I was interviewed on this topic on Sky News. Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been asked to leave the tour after questions over whether he failed to tell the drug testing authorities where he would be during his preparation for the Tour. It has emerged that despite telling the press for over a week that he was training in Mexico, his wife’s homeland, he was actually in Italy. Suspicion has increased as to whether he purposely deceived the testers so he could take cycle of drugs or other blood doping (e.g. EPO) during this period, and only looks worse now there is evidence that he lied. Two other riders have tested positive this week for banned drugs and pre-Tour favourite Alexandre Vinokourov displayed traces of someone else’s blood – all three have been kicked out of the Tour. Worse still for British hopes, two entire teams have left the Tour along with their disgraced riders...